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The End of Eternity

By:
Isaac Asimov

Narrated by:
Paul Boehmer

Length: 8 hrs and 11 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4 out of 5 stars
2,210

Performance

4 out of 5 stars
1,786

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
1,803

This stand-alone work is widely regarded as Asimov's best science fiction novel. Andrew Harlan is an Eternal, a member of the elite of the future. One of the few who live in Eternity, a location outside of place and time, Harlan's job is to create carefully controlled and enacted Reality Changes. These Changes are small, exactingly calculated shifts in the course of history, made for the benefit of humankind. Though each Change has been made for the greater good, there are also always costs....

Superior Time Travel Story

Great Sci-Fi, Decent Story, Poor Characters

Overall

4 out of 5 stars

Performance

4 out of 5 stars

Story

4 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 01-02-18

It was tough to get through this book, since I didn't like the protagonist or really anyone in the book. They're pretty much all neurotic bureaucrats. But the philosophical exploration of time travel kept getting better until the ending gave a sufficiently good payoff to warranty a several star boost from what I was originally going to give this book.

Stuff Matters

Exploring the Marvelous Materials That Shape Our Man-Made World

By:
Mark Miodownik

Narrated by:
Michael Page

Length: 6 hrs and 34 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
3,572

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
3,221

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
3,210

Why is glass see-through? What makes elastic stretchy? Why does a paper clip bend? These are the sorts of questions that Mark Miodownik is constantly asking himself. A globally renowned materials scientist, Miodownik has spent his life exploring objects as ordinary as an envelope and as unexpected as concrete cloth, uncovering the fascinating secrets that hold together our physical world.

absolutely the best

I've listened to well over 50 audiobooks and this is easily in the top 5. Good mix of anecdotes and well-explained technical information. great narrator.

New Sales. Simplified.

The Essential Handbook for Prospecting and New Business Development

By:
Mike Weinberg

Narrated by:
Erik Synnestvedt

Length: 6 hrs and 47 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
439

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
385

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
387

No matter how much repeat business you get from loyal customers, the lifeblood of your business is a constant flow of new accounts. Whether you're a sales rep, sales manager, or a professional services executive, if you are expected to bring in new business, you need a proven formula for prospecting, developing, and closing deals.
New Sales. Simplified. is the answer.

Finally a no-nonsense sales book

Solid

Overall

5 out of 5 stars

Performance

5 out of 5 stars

Story

5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 12-24-13

Nothing revolutionary or tricky about this book - a sound, fundamental approach to B2B selling. He's big into "proactive outreach" (cold-calling) and defends it. I liked the focus on creating an annual Selling Business Plan, for getting more focus on how to sell for the upcoming year. If you've read a million sales books, this won't likely add anything to your skill set, but if you're starting off, I feel this is a pretty good primer.

The Art of Critical Decision Making

By:
Michael A. Roberto,
The Great Courses

Narrated by:
Michael A. Roberto

Length: 12 hrs and 22 mins

Original Recording

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
1,160

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
996

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
985

Learn to approach the critical decisions in your life with a more seasoned, educated eye with this fascinating 24-lecture series that explores how individuals, groups, and organizations make effective decisions. The heart of this accessible series is a thorough examination of decision making at three key levels. First, you'll look at decisions made at the individual level, where, among the many things you'll learn is that intuition is more than just a gut instinct and, in fact, represents a powerful pattern recognition capability.

Very rewarding, fulfilling its promise

Fundamentally Good

Overall

4 out of 5 stars

Performance

5 out of 5 stars

Story

5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 10-31-13

I thought the book was fundamentally good. It went a little slowly for me - many of the topics (and even case studies) are covered in more depth in other books, like "Thinking Fast, Thinking Slow." The points he makes are widely applicable, even though many of them seem like common sense.

7 of 9 people found this review helpful

The Art of Conflict Management: Achieving Solutions for Life, Work, and Beyond

By:
Michael Dues,
The Great Courses

Narrated by:
Michael Dues

Length: 12 hrs and 21 mins

Original Recording

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
1,188

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
1,030

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
1,014

In 24 lectures brimming with practical tips, tools, and techniques everyone can use to better manage conflict in his or her professional and personal lives, gain the essential skills of conflict management. As presented by Professor Dues, these lectures will show you how to effectively deal with conflicts of all kinds, using the "win-win" model that has dominated the field for the past six decades.

Surprisingly Good

Excellent Frameworks

Overall

5 out of 5 stars

Performance

5 out of 5 stars

Story

5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 09-21-13

I thoroughly enjoyed this course. The lecturer is an excellent narrator and sounds very empathetic and understanding. He breaks down the topic into very logical lectures, each focused around very useable frameworks. He frequently references outside studies, but doesn't get bogged down in the details, making it relate to the issue at hand. There are some dramatic enactments of examples which are sometimes cheesy, but overall add to the course. This audiobook is good from start to finish (arguably getting better as it goes), rather than many books, where it's one good idea re-hashed 50 times.

74 of 76 people found this review helpful

Management

Revised Edition

By:
Peter F. Drucker

Narrated by:
Sam Tsoutsouvas

Length: 19 hrs and 55 mins

Abridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
426

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
272

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
268

The essential book on management from the man who invented the discipline. Now completely revised and updated for the first time.

3 out of 5 stars

Comprehensive - Maybe too Comprehensive

Excellent

Overall

4 out of 5 stars

Performance

4 out of 5 stars

Story

4 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 06-23-13

Peter Drucker's insights are fascinating to listen to. With this book, it's a very wide-reaching survey of seems to be everything he ever wrote. My only complaint was the lack of focus, but in some ways, it was nice to think outside the box on seemingly random issues. The narrator has a very posh accent that I think lends well to the content, but the first 30 minutes or so of the book is narrated by the co-author/editor, who sounds like a drunken dockworker.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

The Accidental Sales Manager

How to Take Control and Lead Your Sales Team to Record Profits

By:
Chris Lytle

Narrated by:
Ax Norman

Length: 7 hrs and 6 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
138

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
116

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
114

Get out of the firefighting business and into the business of developing the people who develop your profits. Successful salespeople rightfully become sales managers because of superior sales records. Yet too often these sales stars get stuck doing their old sales job while also trying to juggle their manager role, and too often companies neglect to train their sales managers how to excel as managers. That's the "sales management trap," and it's exactly what
The Accidental Sales Manager addresses and solves.

Not for inside sales managers

Down-to-Earth Strategies

Overall

5 out of 5 stars

Performance

5 out of 5 stars

Story

5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 06-23-13

Chris Lytle breaks the responsibilities of the sales manager into several sections, then dives into improving each one of those areas with reasonable strategies. He talks with many top-performing sales managers and synthesizes those ideas into some fun and innovative solutions. This was a well-organized book that kept moving.

0 of 1 people found this review helpful

Ready, Fire, Aim

Zero to $100 Million in No Time Flat

By:
Michael Masterson

Narrated by:
Sean Pratt

Length: 12 hrs and 14 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
808

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
572

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
569

If you had the opportunity to work where, when, and with whom you wanted - all while getting paid very well - would you take it? Self-made multimillionaire and best-selling author Michael Masterson did, and with
Ready, Fire, Aim he'll show you how to do the same.

Best Business Book in a Long Time

Lots of Interesting Ideas

Overall

4 out of 5 stars

Performance

5 out of 5 stars

Story

5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 04-25-13

Any additional comments?

I think there are a lot of applicable (even if not wholly original) ideas in the book: distinct stages in the life of a company, doing a Minimum Viable Product (using language from the Lean Start-Up), getting out of the way of your own employees, etc. It mostly felt like a mash-up of 4 Hour Workweek and The Lean Start-Up, with some Rich Dad thrown in. There was more "become rich and don't work much" hype than I'd prefer. Overall, a pretty worthwhile read, especially if you haven't read similar books already, but not really a gamechanger for me.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

The Boston Consulting Group on Strategy: Classic Concepts and New Perspectives, 2nd Edition

By:
Carl W. Stern (editor),
Michael S. Deimler (editor)

Narrated by:
Melissa Hughes

Length: 17 hrs and 17 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4 out of 5 stars
72

Performance

4 out of 5 stars
58

Story

3.5 out of 5 stars
57

For more than 40 years, The Boston Consulting Group has been shaping strategic thinking in business.
The Boston Consulting Group on Strategy offers a broad and up-to-date selection of the firm's best ideas on strategy with fresh ideas, insights, and practical lessons for managers, executives, and entrepreneurs in every industry.

A Garage-Sale Find

A Garage-Sale Find

Overall

4 out of 5 stars

Performance

4 out of 5 stars

Story

4 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 04-14-13

Any additional comments?

This book feels like you found it at a garage sale - it shows it's age, but in terms of fundamentals, it's not necessarily BAD. I learned a ton from it and I think it's a valuable read, but very little updating went into it. The publishers have greatly exaggerated the few tweaks they've done. The bell-curve of selections peaks around the mid to late 80's - some from the 70's, some from the 90's, but very little from 2000 on. Many of the pieces comment on the contemporary business environment - the fundamental strategies they propose are sound, but make you wonder what you're missing by not reading something updated for the 2010's.

Also, please note: this is one of the most jargony and dense books I've listened to in a while. This was probably acceptable when the essays ("perspectives") were first circulated, but I think makes it a challenging listen today.